No method exists in pig farming for the successful insemination with very low number of spermatozoids or the transfer of embryos in the oviduct, except for a surgical approach by laparotomy. Even so, this is an impracticable method in livestock production. The laparoscopic approach to the genital organs is a technique which has been used since the decade of the 1970's in human beings, when there are disturbances in the passage of spermatozoids through the uterus, or in animal species when there are technical problems in the passage of catheters through the cervix. Among domesticated animals, it is the sheep where the greatest development has occurred. In this context, it has been demonstrated that the depositing of spermatozoids diluted to doses as low as 1 million and 10 million, inseminated in the uterus, makes it possible to achieve good fertility results. Besides reproductive efficiency, in terms of the small number of spermatozoids to be inseminated, laparoscopic insemination offers other advantages. Among these is the possibility of performing explorations of the genital organs at the same time as the insemination, making it possible to visualize the functional changes which are occurring, in particular changes in the ovaries, and being able to detect in this way pathologies which could not be handled by nonsurgical systems. It also makes it possible to homogenize the fertility results over the course of the year, which is not always possible when using other insemination procedures.
In the case of the pig, the nonsurgical procedure of deep intrauterine insemination allows one to successfully deposit spermatozoids in the uterus of a sow down to levels as low as 50 million spermatozoids. There have also been attempts to perform laparoscopic insemination in the uterine horn with at least 20 million spermatozoids, achieving variable fertility results, owing to the characteristics of the uterine wall in this species. Furthermore, this quantity of spermatozoids prevents the insemination of spermatozoids selected by flow cytometry or treated by other technologies where the number of spermatozoids produced per unit of time is extremely low.
Other similar devices are known from the prior art, such as that described in EP 1177776 B1 of the University of Murcia, although the invention presented here has many differences and advantages over the known prior art. The device described in document EP 1177776 B1 is a nonsurgical device that is introduced via the vagina, cervix, and body of the uterus until it reaches the depths of the uterine horn as the deepest anatomical location. The number of spermatozoids inseminated should be at least 50 million spermatozoids in order to achieve success in the fecundation.